Did you know that Starbucks sickeningly lightly sweetens their iced coffee and iced tea? And that if you don't want it sweet you have to specifically order it as unsweetened? I didn't know this until we were blocks away from the drive through window. We went through the line at the next Starbucks with a drive through, not too far away, and they replaced it no questions asked, which makes me think it wasn't the first time they got this request. Still, though, yuck.

Last weekend I acquired a kitchen scale and a #12 scoop and yesterday I made a batch of the NYTimes chocolate chip cookies.

I chose the OXO Good Grips digital kitchen scale over a Salter simply because it has the pull out display that will allow for something a little larger to be weighed without it getting in the way. This will come in handy for buying USPS package postage online. The display also has a back light so if it's in the shadow of a box I can still read it. I used a 20% off coupon at Bed, Bath and Beyond but be aware that the smaller stores only carry a few kitchen scales, I had to drive to a larger store to find the OXO scale. If I didn't have any need to weigh packages, though, I'd definitely have gotten one of the adorable Escali Primo kitchen scales, a friend has one and it's small enough to tuck away but well trusted among the masses (at least, the reviews at Amazon are happy). They come in a large range of colors, which I talked about previously here.



I chose the #12 scoop simply because the shop I managed to get to didn't have the #10. It is plenty big enough, a leveled scoop of cookie dough averaged at 3.25 ounces. I got twenty levelled scoops out of the dough with nothing left over.

At Orangette's suggestion I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chips. They are nice and big and taste wonderful. I did make an effort to track down the suggested Valrhona feves. I found that DeLaurenti (in Seattle) carries tubs of the feves and they had white chocolate, milk chocolate and a conspicuous empty spot on the shelves where the dark chocolate ones would have logically been placed. I'm not too surprised to find they are sold out. (By the way, if you've never been to DeLaurenti before know that the baking supplies are upstairs with the wine, the first time I went there I spent a long time looking for where they kept the vanillas.) Chef Shop was reporting that they were out of them so I didn't make the extra trip.



The recipe calls for you to chill the dough for 36 hours, this gives the dough a chance to absorb the liquid and reported creates more flavorful cookies, adding caramel notes. The chilled dough is difficult to scoop and I've read that some people have scooped the dough before chilling it. I wonder if that will affect the final taste or texture of the cookies, so I made one batch to pre-scoop and one to chill and scoop before baking. I'm also planning on freezing both pre and post-chill scoops to see how they compare after a while in the freezer. At least that was my plan, until I discovered that I completely forgot to add the vanilla to both batches. Oops. So, while I'll have an overabundance of yummy cookies they won't necessarily be good for judging by taste. Which means I'll just have to make more.

If you have a vacuum sealer in your kitchen this might be of interest to you -- Ideas In Food vacuum sealed cookie dough to create 36 hour cookies in 3 hours. Fabulous.


update: I couldn't wait so I baked a few, here is a just-over-12 hour cookie. Isn't it beautiful?

If you place a quarter over the cap of a bottle of beer before you open it, the top of the cap won't bend and you can put it back on the bottle so the beer will keep overnight. In our case a 22 ounce bottle of Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA was still good when we returned to it after two nights had passed. Thanks to the good people at Full Throttle Bottles for the tip.

Shown above is my lizard bottle cap opener whom I've had since my very first apartment. You can also see him here in all his woefulness.

skin care for every decade of life from Oprah.com

MORE books I'm looking forward to this year. at Bookshelves of Doom

A Nerd’s Lament: The Folly of Follicular Fulfillment or What The Hell Am I Supposed to Do With This Stuff On My Head? at The Park Bench

I'd like to stop using plastic grocery bags, but I use them as liners in all of my garbage cans. Any ideas on what to use as garbage liners in lieu of the plastic bags? at Ask Metafilter

How do you get over being paranoid about driving? at Ask Metafilter

Mystery Gift Box at Product Dose

How do I get my husband to the dinner table? at Ask Metafilter

Clinique Pore Minimizer Instant Perfector, I'm considering trying this out, anybody use it? Worth the price?

Nighttime note taking tools? at Ask Metafilter. I think I need a way to jot down notes in the shower, many brilliant ideas have been lost by the time I'm drying my hair.

Did ninjas ever actually exist? at Ask Metafilter

Christian Siriano from Bravo's Project Runway carries a big beige tote, and sometimes he carries one in white. Where can I find one or one like it? at Ask Metafilter

My niece just got her first period -- how to celebrate? Or is that a weird thing to do? at Ask Metafilter. My friends threw each other little parties, but it would have been weird if one of the adults was involved.

broken link necklace at Swiss Miss

Rules of Thumb at Cool Tools

I need a seriously gigantic novelty toothbrush. at Ask Metafilter

Tee hee, guess what else you can find at the Vermont Country Store, at Jezebel

When Shauna asked if I would be a part of the virtual tour for her book Gluen-Free Girl she gave a few ideas for framing the entry. I decided eating gluten-free for a day would be the most fun. Of course, when my chosen day arrived I was completely unprepared.

Before I start - much of the day below takes account of what I wasn't able to eat or do. This was irresponsible on my part since Shauna's book is not about what living gluten-free means one has to give up - it's about entirely, joyfully, the opposite. I recorded my day before I read the book (again, completely unprepared, irresponsible of me) and I'm sure her intention was for me to discover what I was not missing out on. I apologize to Shauna for very probably getting the point all wrong. Here is the thing though, I learned an amazing amount from cutting this one thing out of my life for 24 hours and trying to interact will all of the stuff I'm surrounded by. I wouldn't give up this learning experience.

Had I read the book before I set out on this day I would have known the answer to every question I asked during my day. While the book informs, it does it through telling her story which is moving and entertaining. Recipes are included in each chapter, recipes that I've bookmarked to make for myself. And at the end is a love story that brought tears to my eyes while I was sitting on my couch, next to Scott, who was playing Resident Evil 4. And even though I'd come across many of those stories on her site already, not even the big spiky monster could get me to look up while I was reading those pages.

My gluten-free day gave me a much richer understanding of what avoiding wheat gluten means to those with celiac, and Shauna gave me a much richer understanding of what avoiding wheat gluten doesn't have to mean.

If you don't know about it already, I insist you go visit Shauna's site, Gluten-Free Girl, her stories and recipes always bring a bit of shininess back into my day. If you have celiac and don't know already, Shauna's husband is the chef at Impromptu Bistro and he's made the restaurant gluten friendly with the option of gluten-free pasta and strictly contained areas for preparing gluten foods so you don't have to fret over any detail.

Ok, here we go. I wake up and...



8:ish a.m.
Oh god I hope there isn't gluten in my Folgers coffee. (more...)

So, you know how sometimes you'll go to the store to get beer and you'll see six packs that are missing a few bottles? Somebody has bought a mixed six pack (and inevitably they've bought half the bottles from the last six pack of the beer you wanted). I always wondered if there was any etiquette behind that, and last weekend I got to ask a nice shopkeeper about it. He explained that in his store you can mix six packs as much as you want but they'll charge you a single-bottle price for each bottle in the pack, meaning, for example, instead of $8 you could pay $12 for a mixed pack. Taking a few bottles out of a last six-pack is rude, but for all the swapper knows there is more in the back. If the beer you came for is victim of missing bottles you can negotiate a normal six-pack price with replacements.

I have a terrible time chopping onions, it usually results in me walking up and down the hall with uncontrollable tears streaming down my face. I've tried all the tips - flame, running water. If I'm very careful I take frequent breaks to walk round, but then dicing an onion takes an unreasonably long time. Recently Ugly Green Chair spotted these Onion Goggles, perfect.

Microwaving sponges might not kill germs (via TMN), and it just be a little dangerous (also).